Sadly the Galamsey war has been lost. The reason is not too difficult to determine.
When propaganda leads the campaign of a political grouping and the objective which is power is achieved the reality soon dawns.
We recall the many demonstrations on the streets of Accra some of them led by university lecturers who tried to get the countrywide campuses involved in the insincere campaign.
Today the NDC has managed to come to power and the galamsey which they claimed they can stop within a few weeks of assuming power has gained an unusual momentum.
With foreigners from nearby countries as well as notorious Chinese nationals deeply engaged in the illegality the matter can be said to have gone out of hand.
Those who led the charge before the December 7 elections are silent as though the illegality has stopped because they have been sorted out by President John Mahama for a job well done. They are now observing table manners because their mouths are full.
With an association of Chinese in mining formed and with the presence of the President’s own brother, Business mogul Ibrahim Mahama gracing the occasion galamsey has been given an official support.
Little wonder when Chinese engaged in galamsey are arrested orders are issued for their release.
That is how bad the situation has degenerated into and we think we are a serious country concerned about the degradation of our forests and water bodies?
Posterity would not be kind to us when we continue to allow government to pretend to be fighting the galamsey war when behind the scenes their own officials are tacitly behind the illegality.
Those who led the charge in the so-called galamsey war are now silent because they are busy manning the posts doled out to them by the political party which benefited from the noise they made in the streets of Accra.
At the time they mounted the streets and demanding that the then President Akufo-Addo declare a state of emergency they found themselves relevant in the campaign.
Today they have changed the hymns claiming that relevant state agencies should deal with the galamsey war and not the President.
Hypocrisy in the country has gone beyond bounds and turning government machinery into a big joke.
When the then opposition leader John Mahama opposed the chasing of galamseyers with soldiers what was in his mind? What has changed since the time when NDC babies with sharp teeth demanded of the then President Akufo-Addo to stop galamsey?
President Mahama should show sincerity and tell us where he stands in the galamsey war. We cannot doubt the allegation that those involved in illegal mining are NDC elements who have been given a carte blanche by the government to go on to mine illegally regardless of the consequences.
After all they have state backing.
Cry our sick country in which leadership has been so debased that sincerity has been thrown to the dogs.
Very soon if we don’t pull the breaks on galamsey and deport the foreigners we have allowed to partake in the illegality we shall be confronted with a national security challenge of monstrous proportions.
